Around a Cabin
About Around a Cabin
On a beach with two huts and a diving board, a woman jumps in and then shoves a hesitant fat man after her. Another woman plays with a small dog until a passerby startles her. He peeks while she changes in a hut. A second man comes out of the other hut, kicks the peeper, and chases him off, then swims out with her. After they leave, a boatman unfurls a sail lettered "La représentation est terminée."
Cast & crew
More about Around a Cabin
Émile Reynaud painted 636 images by hand in 1893 and projected them on his Théâtre Optique. The pantomime played at the Musée Grévin from December 1894 until March 1900. The full title is Autour d'une cabine ou Mésaventures d'un copurchic aux bains de mer. Gaston Paulin wrote the music.
Themes
Background
Reynaud was still running the Théâtre Optique at the Musée Grévin in December 1894, two months before the Lumière brothers' first public film show.
Technique
Six hundred thirty-six hand-painted images, made in 1893, were projected with mirrors on the Théâtre Optique rather than run as a camera negative.
Music
Gaston Paulin wrote the music played with the Théâtre Optique performances.
Preservation
The Reynaud family gave sixteen frames of the ending to the Prague archive in 1926. In October 1948 the family sold the rest of the band to the CNC for the Cinémathèque française, which still holds it.
Notes
- French Wikipedia gives a duration of 5 minutes. The English Wikipedia infobox says 15 minutes. Wikidata says 2 minutes. The runtime field follows the English infobox.
- It belonged to the second program of Reynaud's Pantomimes lumineuses. The Cabinet fantastique at the Musée Grévin had been showing that series since 1892.
- The pictures were painted on a band that could not be duplicated, because color photographic copying was not yet practical.
- The sail that closes the pantomime is an early "the end" card.
Scenes
- The woman pushes the fat man off the diving board and jumps in after him.
- A man kicks the peeping tom away from the hut.
- The boatman spreads a sail that reads "La représentation est terminée.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1894 - Autour D'une Cabine.webm)
Quotes
La représentation est terminée
